Le Dauphin

Opening hours: From 12:30pm to 3pm (except Tuesday) and from 7pm to 11pm (2am for the bar). Closed Sunday and Monday.

Le Dauphin (Paris)

Le Guide Fooding’s Best Décor of 2011

With floor-to-ceiling mirrors and white marble, Le Dauphin is 2001: An Audacious Odyssey carved into Carrara marble. If you fail to get a table at Chateaubriand next door, this radical, Rem Koolhaas-designed dining room is the perfect plan B for experiencing the iconic chef Iñaki Aizpitarte’s ecstatic and electric cuisine. But there have been some new additions to the space recently, now open for lunch with a little tropical flair provided by the warm and shimmering playlist from La Flama Blanca. For an appetizer, try the addictive fried cubes of pecorino and tapioca do Brazil (€5); or the luxurious soups, like the mesmerizing broth with Madagascar green peppercorns, fresh noodles from Ippudo, sliced beef and Chinese cabbage for €13 (or for something with a little more machismo, a pho soup with chorizo, thin piment d’Espelette noodles, pickled onions and pork meatballs with hazelnuts and lemon zest for €13); before a stunning milk cream pudding with bay leaf-infused oil (€6). At night, the stylish crowd goes weak in the knees for these high society tapas: eau de vie with razor clams, cucumber and chilies; a mystical and gothic squid ink risotto; a rustic radicchio, almond and brebis cheese salad; glamorous lomo ham; thunderous buttermilk and olive oil ice cream. And there’s nothing but natural wines fueling it all: P’tit blanc du Tue-Bœuf (€6 a glass), Languedoc blanc Juste Ciel, Les Petites Baigneuses, Languedoc rouge Les Glaneurs or Les Foulards Rouges (€32 and €44). Gin and tonic €12. Soups €12-13. Dinner plates from €3.50 to €35. // Matthieu Jauniau-Dallier

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